Justin Masterson, making his 3rd start in the bigs, pitched another very good game, and picked up his 2nd win in a row…His line for last night’s contest was 6 innings, throwing 91 pitches (61 for strikes) while giving up 6 hits (including a 2 run shot by Carlos Pena) and 4 runs, while walking 2 and striking out 5.

So, unless the Sox are blowing smoke–David Ortiz may be back this season after all–the only problem is–will this injury affect his hitting? At this point, the Sox are doubtful surgery will be required, and that the cast he currently has on his lower arm/wrist for the next 2-3 weeks will keep it immobile enough to allow the scar tissue to build up and heal the partial tear without surgery. Fortunately, it was only a partial tear; a full tear (which is what Curt Schilling has on his ankle in 2004) would definitely require season ending surgery.

From Theo: “The integrity of the tendon hasn’t been comprised at all, so that’s why the doctors are pretty confident that if it’s immobilized in this hard cast for a period of time, that there’s a pretty significant chance that it’ll heal itself in that time period…We’ll know it has [healed], because David will be pain free and it’s not tender when he gets out of the cast, then it will have resolved itself and he can start a progression. It’s essentially two to three weeks…” I really hope this works, because when I hear wrist injury, all I think of is Nomar…

No matter what happens tho, can people please stop even THINKING about bringing Barry Bonds to Boston–even throwing THOUGHTS like that to the universe is WAY bad mojo…and it CANNOT happen–it CAN’T!!!

For right now, the Sox will frequently be using Manny, who has a hamstring issues and could use the rest sometimes, as the DH, although Tito was quick to say that the DH-ing duties will be spread around quite a bit…and there are 9 games played in NL parks in the next couple weeks, where there is no DH anyway…

Coming up tomorrow is the Amateur Draft; the Sox (because they won the World Series) get the last pick in the 1st round (30th overall) and 5 of the 1st 108 picks. They also get a 1st round sandwich pick (45th overall) for Eric Gagne–which is pretty much the only useful thing he did for the Sox…

If you want some super coverage of tomorrow’s MLB Amateur Draft, check out MajorLeagueReport.com. Brad and Kevin, founders of the site, will begin blogging live just before the draft begins at 2:00pm EST, and continue all through the draft, offering coverage including live analysis, player bios, scouting videos, and tons of live reader interaction. So, if you have ever wanted to get all the scoop on the draft, WHILE IT’S HAPPENING, then stop by MajorLeagueReport.com. Should be a way cool event!

Tonight: Game 2 of the 3 game set against the Rays. Josh Beckett gets the nod, opposed by Edwin Jackson. 1st pitch 7:05pm